Older kids – Page 22 – Now Read This!

September 8, 2016September 6, 2016

Mighty Samson Archives: volume 1

By Otto Binder & Frank Thorne & various (Dark Horse Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-579-7

These days all the attention in comics circles goes to the big-hitters and headline-grabbing groundbreakers, but once upon a time, when funnybooks were cheap as well as plentiful, a kid (whatever his or her age) could afford to follow the pack and still find time and room to enjoy quirky outliers: B through Z listers, oddly off-kilter concepts and champions far falling outside the accepted parameters of standard super-typesâ€¦

A classic example of that freedom of expression was the relatively angst-free dystopian future of Mighty Samson, who had a sporadic yet extended comics career of 32 issues spanning 1964 to 1982.

Although set in the aftermath of an atomic Armageddon, the story of the survivors was a blend of updated myth, pioneer adventure and superhero shtick, liberally leavened with the kind of incredible creatures and sci fi monsters the industry thrived on back then.

As a publisher, Gold Key never really â€œgotâ€ the melodramatic, often-mock-heroic Sturm und Drang of the 1960s superhero boom – although for many of us, the understated functionality of classics like Magnus, Robot Fighter and Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom or the remarkably radical concepts of atomic crusader Nukla and crime-fighting iterations of classic movie monsters Dracula, Frankenstein and Werewolf were utterly irresistible. The sheer off-the-wall lunacy of features like Neutro or Dr. Spektor I will save for a future occasionâ€¦

This superb first full-colour hardback compilation – printed on a reassuringly sturdy and comforting grainy old-school pulp stock rather than glossy paper – gathers the first half dozen issues of Mighty Samson, as anonymously created by industry giants Otto Binder & Frank Thorne. It even includes some monochrome single-page fact-features and the mesmerising painted covers by unsung master illustrators Morris Gollub and George Wilson.

These covers were reproduced text-free on the back of each issue and probably graced many a kid’s bedroom wall way back when. You get those too, but I’d suggest scanners rather than scissors this time aroundâ€¦

Otto Binder was a quintessential jobbing writer. He and his brother Earl were early fans of science fiction and made their first professional sale to Amazing Stories in 1930. As â€œEando Binderâ€ their pulp-fiction and novels output ran well into the 1970s, with Otto rightly famed for his creation of robotic hero Adam Link.

From 1939 onwards, Otto was also a prolific comicbook scripter, most beloved for the invention and perfection of a humorous blend of spectacular action, self-deprecating humour and gentle whimsy which characterised the Fawcett Captain Marvel line of characters (and later DC’s Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen). He was also constantly employed by many other publishers and amongst his most memorable inventions and innovations are Timely’s Young Allies, Mr. Mind, Brainiac, Krypto the Super Dog and the Legion of Super-Heroes.

In his later life he moved into editing, producing factual science books and writing for NASA.

Frank Thorne is one of the most individualistic talents in American comics. Born in 1930, he began his comics career drawing romances for Standard Comics beside the legendary Alex Toth before graduating to better paid newspaper strips: illustrating Perry Mason for King Features Syndicate. For Dell/Gold Key he drew Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim and The Green Hornet, as well as the first few years of this seminal sci-fi classic.

At DC he did compelling work on Tomahawk and Son of Tomahawk before being hired by Roy Thomas at Marvel to illustrate his belated breakthrough strip Red Sonja. Forever-after connected with feisty, earthy, highly sexualised women, in 1978 Thorne created the outrageously bawdy (some say vulgar) swordswoman Ghita of Alizarr for Warren’s adult science fantasy anthology 1984/1994 as well as such adult satirical strips as Moonshine McJugs for Playboy and Danger Rangerette for National Lampoon. He has won the National Cartoonists Award for comic books, an Inkpot Award and a Playboy Editorial Award.

Thorne was still a fairly by-the-book illustrator at the time of this collection’s content and it was on Mighty Samson that he opened up, finding his own unique artistic vision which would carry him to the forefront of stylists with the satirical and erotic works of his later years.

That’s meat for other reviews, but here the creators combined to craft a beguiling other-world of action, adventure and drama suitable for most kids of all ages and which would be perfectly at home today on any Saturday Morning Kids channel.

The strip, its merits and the incredible careers of its originators are fully and lovingly discussed by Dylan Williams in his Foreword ‘The Mighty Samson Comics of Frank Thorne and Otto Binder’, and there are full ‘Creator Biographies’ at the end of the book, but what really matters is the sublime stories reprinted here: no-nonsense high-fantasy yarns at once self-contained, episodic, exciting, enticing and deceptively witty.

After that first magnetic painted cover from Gollub, the eponymous ‘Mighty Samson’ (#1, July 1964) introduces the bombed out former metropolis of N’Yark; a place where human primitives cling to the ruins, striving daily against mutated plants and monsters and less easily identified blends somewhere in betweenâ€¦.

A strange event occurs one day when a toddler is grabbed by a predatory plant. The tot simply tears the terror apart with his podgy little hands. As years pass and the child grows tall and clean-limbed, it becomes clear that he too is a mutant: immensely strong, fast and durableâ€¦

Impassioned by his mother’s dying words – â€œprotect the weak from the powerful, the good from the evilâ€ – Samson becomes the champion of his people, battling the beasts and monsters of the city. Sadly the struggles are not without cost, such as when he kills the immense Liobear, but loses his right eyeâ€¦

The clash proves a turning point in his life as his wounds are dressed by a stranger named Sharmaine. She and her father Mindor are voluntary outcasts in the city: shunning contact with superstitious tribes to gather lost secrets of science and work to bring humanity out of its second stone ageâ€¦

Fired with inspiration, Samson agrees to join in their self-appointed mission and defend them from all threats as they carry out their work.

There were generally two full adventures per issue, and the quest continues in ‘Ancient Weapon’ as the trio’s constant scavenging leads them through a gauntlet of horrendous mutant monsters to an ancient armoury where sagacious Mindor deciphers the secrets of sticks which kill from a distance. Sadly, the discovery is observed by brutal warlord Kull the Killer who takes Sharmaine hostage to seize control of the death-technology. Thankfully the tyrant and his warriors never suspect Samson is as clever as he is strongâ€¦

It was nearly a year until a second issue was released (#2, June 1965), but when it finally arrived it was at full throttle. ‘The Riddle of the Raids’ saw the wandering science nomads buzzed by a flying saucer which proves to be the vehicle of choice of a new arch foe. Terra is an exotic mystery woman possessing many lost technological secrets who has emerged after years underground in a bunker from the old world. Her store of atomic batteries finally exhausted, she begins raiding across the toxic, monster-infested Huzon River from the wastelands of Jerz, and soon recruits Kull to her cause. Even working in unison however they are no match for Mighty Samson and once he drives them off, aged Mindor is able to add greatly to mankind’s store of recovered knowledgeâ€¦

Intent on uncovering the truth about ‘The Maid of Mystery’, Samson makes the perilous excursion across the devastated George Washington Bridge to invade Terra’s subterranean fortress in Jerz. Although faced with Kull’s monstrous minions and captured, the one-eyed hero soon escapes, but not before making a lasting impression on the evil empress of forgotten loreâ€¦

More secrets of lost civilisation emerged in #3 (September 1965) after the atomic archaeologists unearth a ‘Peril from the Past’. Dr. John Pitt was working in an atomic bunker when the world ended, and after somehow falling into suspended animation is revived by the jubilant Mindor.

Determined to glean everything possible from the shaken survivor, hopes are continually dashed as a geological accident in an old chemical factory threatens to wipe out N’Yark with toxic clouds of radioactive poison. However, as the reawakened chemist works with his rescuers to end the threat, Sharmaine suspects the old-worlder is hiding somethingâ€¦

The tragic truth about Pitt comes out as he and Samson begin ‘The Desperate Mission’ to snuff out the source of the death cloud, but only as a prelude to a greater, final lossâ€¦

With Mighty Samson #4 (December 1965), the turbulent world of tomorrow expanded exponentially as N’Yark suffers raids by post-apocalyptic Vikings from pastoral paradise Greelynd. Barbaric despot Thorr leads ‘The Metal Stealers’ in stripping the ruined city of all its scrap alloys; sailing them to his distant Nordic castle where he has rediscovered the processes of smelting and forging.

Samson doggedly tracks him across unknown oceans, not just because he has stolen the city’s heritage and vital resources but also because the reaver kidnapped Sharmaine and seemingly turned Mindor’s head with promises of technological resources and total freedom to experimentâ€¦

Of course, all is not as it seems and when Samson invades Thorr’s ‘Sinister Stronghold’, to battle the tyrant’s legion of monsters, idealistic Mindor’s seeming compliance is revealed as a clever plan to defeat the resource raiderâ€¦

Returned to their shattered home, Samson and his allies are helpless against the mounting radioactive peril of ‘The Death Geysers’ (#5, March 1966) erupting from beneath the city. With portions of N’Yark now no-go areas, hope seems to materialise in the form of Vaxar, a stranger versed in science, whom Samson rescues from a voracious Gulping Blob.

Vaxar eagerly joins their efforts to neutralise the geyser menace, but the researcher’s every invention is countered by a monstrous and bestial mutant named Oggar who is every inch Samson’s physical equalâ€¦

Once again, clear-headed Sharmaine is the one who deduces the truth about ‘The Double Enemy’ in their midst and, as Vaxar’s terrible secret is exposed, awesome natural forces are combined with a most terrifying artefact of recovered weaponry to end the threat of both Oggar and the geysersâ€¦

These utterly accessible, exultant and exuberant romps conclude in this volume with a sop to the then-escalating â€œspace raceâ€ between Russia and the USA. Issue #6 (June 1966) opens with N’Yark bombarded by ‘The Sinister Satellites’ of a forgotten era, haphazardly crashing to earth around the city.

Consulting his preciously-hoarded records, Mindor ascertains they are lost technology he simply must possess, but finds that he is in deadly contention with Terra of Jerz for the fallen stars.

None too soon, suspicious Samson and Sharmaine discover the evil queen of science is actually pulling the satellites to earth with a magnetic cannon, but as they move to stop her, an unintended consequence of her meddling unleashes ‘The Monster from Space’ which grows exponentially and looks set to devour the entire continent should Mighty Samson not find some way to kill itâ€¦

This excellent tome has one last treat in store, as a brace of monochrome pictorial fact features – also illustrated by Thorne – reveal a few salient facts about the iconic Empire State Building in ‘The Mighty Tower’ and ‘The World’s Tallest’, originally produced as frontispieces for the advert-free original comicbooks.

Bizarre, action-packed and fabulously bombastic, Binder’s modern myth of a rationalist Hercules battling atom-spawned Titans and devils is a stunning spectacle of thrill-a-minute wonderment from start to finish, with artist Thorne visibly shaking off his artistic chains with every succeeding page. These tales are lost gems from an era when fun was paramount and entertainment a mandatory requirement. This is comics they way they were and really should be againâ€¦
Mighty SamsonÂ® Volume One â„¢ and Â© 2010 Random House, Inc. Under license to Classic Media LCC. All rights reserved. All other material, unless otherwise specified, Â© 2010 Dark Horse Comics, Inc. All rights reserved.

September 4, 2016August 30, 2016

Mandrake the Magician: The Hidden Kingdom of Murderers – Sundays 1935-1937

By Lee Falk & Phil Davis (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-0-85768-572-8

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Because We Believe in Magicâ€¦ 9/10

Considered by many as the first superhero, Mandrake the Magician debuted as a daily newspaper strip on 11^th June 1934. An instant hit, it was soon supplemented by a full-colour Sunday companion page which launched on February 3^rd 1935.

Creator Lee Falk actually sold the strip to King Features Syndicate years earlier as a 19-year old college student, but asked the monolithic company to let him finish his studies before dedicating himself to the strip full time. With his schooling done, the 23 year old master raconteur settled in to begin his life’s work: entertaining millions with his astounding tales.

Falk – who also created the first costumed superhero in the moodily magnificent Phantom – spawned an actual comicbook subgenre with his first creation. Most publishers of the Golden Age boasted at least one (and usually many more) nattily attired wonder wizards amongst their gaudily-garbed pantheons; all roaming the world making miracles and defeating injustice with varying degrees of stage legerdemain or actually sorcery.

Characters such Mr. Mystic, Ibis the Invincible, Sargon the Sorcerer, and an assortment of â€œâ€¦the Magicianâ€ such as Zanzibar, Zatara, Kardak and so many, many more all borrowed heavily and shamelessly from the uncanny exploits of the elegant, enigmatic man of mystery who graced the pages of the world’s newspapers and magazines.

In the Antipodes Mandrake was a stalwart regular of the Australian Women’s Weekly, and also became a cherished star in the UK, Italy and Scandinavia.

Over the years he has been a star of radio, movie chapter-serials, a theatrical play, television and animation as part of the cartoon series Defenders of the Earth. With that has come the usual merchandising bonanza of games, toys (including magic trick kits), books, comics and moreâ€¦

Falk worked on Mandrake and â€œThe Ghost who Walksâ€ until his death in 1999 (even on his deathbed he was laying out one last story) but he also found time to become a playwright, theatre producer and impresario, as well as an inveterate world-traveller.

A man of many talents, Falk drew the first few weeks himself before uniting with the sublimely imaginative cartoonist Phil Davis whose sleekly understated renditions took the daily strip – and especially these expansive full-page Sunday offerings – to unparalleled heights of sophistication; his steady assured realism the perfect tool to render the Magician’s mounting catalogue of wondrous miraclesâ€¦

Those in the know are well aware that Mandrake was educated at the fabled College of Magic in Tibet, thereafter becoming a suave globe-trotting troubleshooter, always accompanied by his faithful African friend Lothar and beautiful companion (eventually, in 1997, his bride) Princess Narda of Cockaigne, solving crimes and fighting evil. Those days, however, are still to come as the comics section opens in this splendidly oversized (315 x 236 mm) full-colour luxury hardback with ‘The Hidden Kingdom of Murderers’ (which ran from February 3^rd to June 2^nd 1935) as the urbane Prince of Prestidigitation and his herculean man-servant are approached by members of the international police to help expose a secret society of criminals and killers acting against the civilised world from their own hidden country.

After officer Duval is assassinated, Mandrake and Lothar – accompanied by panther woman Rheeta and surviving cop Pierce – embark upon a multi-continental search which after many adventures eventually takes them a desolate desert region where they are confronted by bloody-handed Bull Ganton, King of Killers.

With the master murderer distracted by Rheeta, Mandrake easily infiltrates the odious organisation and quickly begins dismantling the secret society of two million murderers. By the time Ganton wises up and begins a succession of schemes to end Mandrake, it’s too lateâ€¦

That deadly drama concluded, Mandrake and Lothar head to India to revisit old haunts and end up playing both peacemaker and cupid in the ‘Land of the Fakirs’ (running from June 9^th to October 6^th).

When Princess Jana, daughter of Mandrake’s old acquaintance Jehol Khan is abducted by rival ruler Rajah Indus of Lapore, the Magician ends his mischievous baiting of the street fakirs to intervene. In the meantime Captain Jorga – who loves Jana despite being of a lower caste – sets off from the Khan’s palace to save her or die in the tryingâ€¦

After many terrific and protracted struggles, Mandrake, Lothar and Jorga finally unite to defeat the devious and duplicitous Rajah before the westerners set about their most difficult and important feat; overturning centuries of tradition so that Jorga and Jana might marryâ€¦

Heading north, the peripatetic performers stumble into amazing fantasy after entering the ‘Land of the Little People’ (13^th October 1935 to March 1^st 1936), encountering a lost race of tiny people embroiled in a centuries-long war with brutal cannibalistic adversaries. After saving the proud warriors from obliteration, Mandrake again plays matchmaker, allowing valiant Prince Dano to wed brave and formidable commoner Derina who fought so bravely beside themâ€¦

With this sequence illustrator Davis seemed to shake off all prior influences and truly blossomed into an artist with a unique and mesmerising style all his own. That was perfectly showcased in the loosely knit sequence (spanning 8^th March to 23^rd August 1936) which followed, as Mandrake and Lothar returned to civilisation only to narrowly escape death in an horrific train wreck.

Crawling from the wreckage, our heroes help ‘The Circus People’ recapture and calm the animals freed by the crash and subsequently stick around as the close-knit family of nomadic outcasts rebuild. Mighty Lothar has many clashes with jealous bully Zaro the Strongman, culminating in thwarting attempted murder, whilst Mandrake uses his hypnotic hoodoo to teach sadistic animal trainer Almado lessons in how to behave, but primarily the newcomers act as a catalyst, making three slow-burning romances finally burst into roaring passionate lifeâ€¦

Absolutely the best tale in this tome and an imaginative tour de force which inspired many soon-to-be legendary comicbook stars, ‘The Chamber into the X Dimension’ (30^th August 1936 to March 7^th 1937) is a breathtaking, mind-bending saga which begins when Mandrake and Lothar go searching for the missing daughter of a scientist whose experiments have sent her literally out of this world.

Professor Theobold has discovered a way to pierce the walls between worlds but his beloved Fran never returned from the first live test. Eager to help – and addicted to adventure – Mandrake and Lothar volunteer to go in search of her and soon find themselves in a bizarre timeless world where the rules of science are warped and races of sentient vegetation, living metal, crystal and even flame war with fleshly humanoids for dominance and survival.

After months of captivity, slavery, exploration and struggle our human heroes finally lead a rebellion of the downtrodden fleshlings and bring the professor the happiest news of his long-missing childâ€¦

Concluding this initial conjuror’s compilation is a whimsical tale of judgement and redemption as Mandrake uses his gifts to challenge the mad antics of ‘Prince Paulo the Tyrant’ 14^th (March 14^th – 29^th August 1937).

The unhappy usurper stole the throne of Ruritanian Dementor and promptly turned the idyllic kingdom into a scientifically created madhouse. Sadly, Paulo had no conception of what true chaos and terror were until the magician exercised his mesmeric talentsâ€¦

This epic celebration also offers a fulsome, picture-packed and informative introduction to the character – thanks to Magnus Magnuson’s compelling essay ‘Mandrake the Magician Wonder of a Generation’ – plus details on the lives of the creators (Lee Falk’ and ‘Phil Davis Biography’ features) and a marvellous Davis pin-up of the cast to complete an immaculate confection of nostalgic strip wonderment for young and old alike.
Mandrake the Magician Â© 2016 King Features Syndicate. All Rights Reserved. â€œMandrake the Magician Wonder of a Generationâ€ Â© 2016 by Magnus Magnuson.

September 2, 2016August 28, 2016

Star Trek Archives volume 5: Best of Captain Kirk

By Peter David, James Fry, Gordon Purcell, Arne Starr & various (IDW)
ISBN: 978-1-60010-571-5

The stellar Star Trek brand is one of probably the biggest franchise engines on Earth, permeating every merchandisable sector imaginable. You can find daily live-action and animated screen appearances constantly screening somewhere on the planet, toys, games, conventions, merchandise, various comics iterations generated in a host of nations and languages and a reboot of the movie division proceeding apace even as I type this. There’s even a new rebooted TV series beginning in 2017â€¦

Many companies have published comicbook adventures based on the exploits of Gene Roddenberry’s immortal brainchild. Currently IDW have the treasured funnybook license and are combining great new tales with a choice selection of older examples from other publishers.

A particularly fine extended exploit can be found in this epic sequence taken from a splendid run produced under the DC badge during the 1980s and early 1990s. Never flashy or sensational, those tales assiduously and scrupulously referenced the TV and movie canon whilst embracing the same storytelling values and concentrating on stories simultaneously character-led and plot-driven.

Here Federation history blends seamlessly with suspenseful drama and spectacular action, subtle character interplay, boisterous humour and good old fashioned thrills as scripter Peter David and his artistic allies concoct a tense, politically-tinged saga first seen in issues #7-12 of DC’s monthly Star Trek comicbook (spanning April to September 1990).

Previously: a number of hostile alien races – the Klingons – just prior to their grand rapprochement with the Federation – and a now-uncomfortably un-PC fundamentalist species called Nasguls (based on then-contemporary bugbear Iran under the Ayatollahs) have recently fallen foul of James T. Kirk’s unconventional problem-solving methods.

Having had enough of the human’s impious interference, the holy Salla of the Nasguls placed a planet-sized bounty on the Enterprise’s Captain.

Kirk doesn’t care: he has bigger problems. Finally fed up with his interstellar shenanigans, Starfleet has appointed civilian protocol officer R. J. Blaise to the Enterprise to make sure Kirk behaves properly, but somehow this beautiful woman is completely immune to our hero’s amatory charmsâ€¦

The astral action opens on Earth where Starfleet Vice-Admiral Tomlinson and the Federation President are enduring a fractious and tiresome meeting with the Klingon ambassador and the august Salla himself.

The tyrannical aliens have temporarily suspended their disdain for each other and are now (relatively) united in pursuing quasi-legal avenues; seeking to have Kirk cashiered from the service, tried in a Federation court and then – naturally – executedâ€¦

Events take a most unwelcome turn in ‘Notâ€¦ Sweeney!’ (by David, James W. Fry & Arne Starr) as news comes that the most dreaded bounty hunter in the universe has decided to collect the price on Kirk’s head.

Caring little for the death-sentence dogging him, the starship captain is utterly incensed when it adversely affects his job. Despatched to Tau Gamma II to rescue a human colony before the geologically unstable planet shakes itself to bits, Kirk is flabbergasted to find the survivors demanding another ship or to be left to the world’s erratic mercies, rather than endure certain doom when Sweeney comes for the Enterprise’s captainâ€¦

Their anxiety proves well-founded when hours later the infallible stalker arrives with a fleet of ships and attacksâ€¦

After a tremendous struggle in ‘Going, Goingâ€¦’, Kirk – with Spock and Blaise as collateral captives – is confined aboard the disturbingly effete bounty hunter’s flagship and made the star of an impromptu auction.

Kirk has made many enemies in his career and a ferocious bidding war begins, but Sweeney’s attentions are soon diverted by Spock. The scrupulously polite and terrifyingly brilliant manhunter has never met a captive like the Vulcan, and his distracting new fascination eventually leads to Sweeney’s first defeat as Kirk and Blaise break out of the Brig just as competing Klingon and Nasgul forces warp in to claim the prize lot in Sweeney’s auctionâ€¦

Things come to a head when the situation deteriorates into a petulant shooting war in ‘â€¦Gone!’, leaving Kirk to pull off yet another hairsbreadth escape and even save the colonists on Tau Gamma IIâ€¦

However, no longer willing to tolerate the political machinations, he then forces the issue to a head by surrendering himself to Federation authorities on Earth and demanding his day in court to clear his name once and for allâ€¦

Given the chance for a show trial, the Salla and his Klingons antagonists revel in the chance to destroy the greatest hindrance to their plans as ‘The Trial of James T. Kirk’ opens with ‘The First Thing We Doâ€¦’

This story-within-a-story is stuffed with hilarious cameos and vignettes from many old TV episodes (but in an easily accessible manner for newcomers unfamiliar with lore) and sees Kirk’s attorneys Samuel T. Cogsley and Areel Shaw (look them up if you need to) deftly manoeuvre to remove most of the charges whilst rolling out many fan-favourites from old episodes to act as â€œcharacter witnessesâ€â€¦

Despite making some telling points, an Enterprise crewman turning to the Dark Side and the frank sworn testimony of R. J. Blaise, the is case is clearly going against the Klingons and Nasgul. Thus they individually and clandestinely resort to their respective â€œPlan Bsâ€ in ‘â€¦Lets Kill All the Lawyers!’

The bellicose warrior race fly in their Emperor to give personal testimony and demand Kirk’s destruction whilst the fundamentalist tyrant of the Nasgul opts for a far more hands-on and devastatingly final solutionâ€¦

Pencilled by Gordon Purcell, the saga explosively concludes in ‘Trial and Error!’ as deft work by Spock and the Bridge Crew uncover a plot to eradicate the courtroom and everyone in it, leading to a cessation of hostilities between the Federation and the Klingons and Kirk’s full exoneration.

Sadly, those efforts completely failed to expose the treacherous mole high in Star Fleet Command who was crucial to instigating the entire affairâ€¦

This tale is pure classic Trek. The fans loved it then and you will now. It’s also a very good example of how to do a licensed property in comic form, and readers and wannabe creators should buy and take note. Balancing the action and drama are captivating moments of interpersonal byplay filling out the roles of beloved characters such as Uhura and Sulu and – as you’d expect from Peter David – the story is packed with outrageously hilarious quotable momentsâ€¦

These yarns are magical romps of fun and thrills that fully embrace and enhance the canonical Star Trek for the dedicated fan, provide memorable comicbook adventure for followers of our art-form and, most importantly, provide an important bridge between the insular world of fans and the wider mainstream. Stories like these about such famous characters can only bring more people into comics and isn’t that what we all want?
Star Trek Â® and Â© 2009 CBS Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios, Inc.

August 29, 2016August 28, 2016

August Moon

By Diana Thung (Top Shelf)
ISBN: 978-1-60309-069-8

Diana Thung was born in Jakarta, and grew up in Singapore before eventually settling in Australia. She is a natural storyteller, cartoonist and comics creator of sublime wit and imagination who seems to have a direct hotline to the limitless thought-scapes of childhood. Every single thing populating her astonishingly unique worlds is honed to razor sharpness and pinpoint logical clarity, no matter how weird or whimsical it might initially seem.

The sentiment is pure and unrefined, the scenarios are perfectly constructed and effectively, authentically realised. â€¦And when things get tense and scary they are excessively tense and really, really scaryâ€¦

After a few tentative dabblings, Thung catapulted to (relative) fame in 2012 following the release of her first graphic novel: a superb blending of eastern and western comics influences that remixed a few standard elements of fantasy into a superbly fresh conjunction for young and old alike.

Rendered in stunning, organically enticing black and white, the scene opens in the Asian township of Callico: an isolated little metropolis in the midst of lush jungle verdure and a place with a few strange secretsâ€¦

Reachable only by one solitary bridge, generally cut off from the wider world by dense surrounding forests and innate unchanging dullness, the town moves at its own pace. Life is slow, existence is bucolic and the biggest deal for the people is the perennial debate over whether the strange dancing lights seen in the trees at night are actually Soul Fire – dead ancestors watching over the town – or just some unexplained scientific phenomenonâ€¦

Answers start coming for a select few folk after ugly, business-suited strangers begin buying up empty shops for a company named Mon & Key. Some of the older street vendors are understandably anxious but only Grandma and her peculiar little associate Jaden know the appalling threat the interlopers poseâ€¦

Events start to spiral out of control when the newcomers murder a hitherto unknown â€œanimalâ€ and news of the bizarre beast’s corpse leaks out into the wider world. The amazing discovery brings college biologist Dr. Gan back to the town his dead wife grew up in for the first time in years, dragging teenaged daughter Fiona with him.

Reluctant to be there, Fi keeps to herself; spending time snapping photos with her instamatic camera. The dull old backwater suddenly becomes more intriguing after she captures a candid shot of a boy leaping like a grasshopper over the rooftopsâ€¦

When she finally meets the incomprehensibly enigmatic Jaden, Fi is quickly drawn into his bizarre struggle against the ape-like invaders. After meeting the clandestine forest creatures who are the true source of Soul Fire, she makes their struggle her ownâ€¦

The cruel and cunning interlopers of Mon & Key worship commerce and progress. Their agenda involves destroying the forests to build factories. Ruthless and multi-resourced, they retaliate by killing all objectors in the know, whilst attempting to dissuade and eventually assassinate Fi’s father.

However, with the aid of Callico’s street children – and a few clued-in, sympathetic adults like her Uncle Simon – Fi and super-powered, magic moon-boy Jaden lead a spirited secret war to destroy the rapacious deforestation machines of Mon & Key.

As the holiday season nears its end and the town prepares for its annual Soul Fire Festival and parade, Mon & Key’s forces assemble for one final deforesting assault, but they have totally underestimated Jaden’s resolve, Fi’s ingenuity and Callico’s desire to remain unchanged and unchangingâ€¦

A funny, scary, magical and thrilling modern fable, August Moon seamlessly blends ecological themes with beguiling myth to tell a captivating tale of child empowerment and rebellious wonder. This is a truly enticing young reader’s epic every lover of comics and storytelling should take to their hearts.
Â© 2011 Diana Thung.

August 20, 2016August 18, 2016

Pandora’s Box volume 2: Sloth

By RadovanoviÄ‡ & Alcante, coloured by Usagi and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-006-1

Pandora’s Box is the impressive conception of Belgian author Didier Swysen under his nom de plume Alcante (Jason Brice, Rani, La Conjuration de Cluny). The format is a sequence of eight stand-alone stories, all informed by burgeoning ethical issues we’re daily dealing with and each revealing the ultimate cost of succumbing to one of the â€œSeven Deadly Sinsâ€ that have afflicted humanity since that fabled box was first breachedâ€¦

Each headline haunted epic blends Cassandra-toned contemporary societal concerns with technological extrapolation, framed in modern terms and images against a backdrop of a tale from classical mythology offered as foreboding metaphorical prognostications to the political and plutocratic powers-that-beâ€¦

Utilising disturbingly familiar yet widely disparate hot-button topics, the stories are linked only by the fact that each individual protagonist is accosted and warned by an arcane and peculiar bag-lady prior to the denouementâ€¦

Each tale is illustrated by one of a truly international pantheon of different artists. Second saga Pandora Box – La pareses references the fall of Troy and was deftly delineated by Serbian illustrator Vujadin â€œVujaâ€ RadovanoviÄ‡ (ÄŒuvari zaboravljenog vremena, DÅ¾o XX, Candide ou l’optimisme, de Voltaire) and coloured by Usagi, recounting how a magnificent hero responds to the passing of time, the failure of his powers and fading of his cherished gloryâ€¦

Paris Troy has been the fastest man alive for a decade: a multi-gold medal winning Olympian and pristine example of all that is honourable and magical about sporting endeavour. Now as the sprinter recovers from a thigh injury in preparation for the next Great Games, an obnoxious rival is all over the media, baiting the runner and winning races, edging ever closer to Troy’s cherished world record.

The thought of someone like Ace Achean stealing his place in the world disgusts Paris, but is it the only reason he finally listens to his brother’s loathsome suggestions?

Hector Troy might well have been even faster than his sibling, but since he was caught doping and barred from competition, no one will ever know for sure. Now, with his confidence ebbing due to the injury or perhaps some psychological block, and Achean baiting him and threatening to take his sponsorship deals, Paris turns his back on a lifetime of proudly clean living and succumbs to Hector’s temptations.

It doesn’t hurt so much after he learns that his supplier is also helping Ace keep his edgeâ€¦

And then, with the Olympics open and Troy doped to the gills, the once noble sportsman discovers he’s been lured into a moral maze and inescapable trap by someone who has hated him for yearsâ€¦

With his life, fortune, reputation and legacy all at stake and nothing but shame, humiliation and disdain in his future, Paris seems to have no way outâ€¦

Stark, powerful and expressive, this tale of great temptation not resisted shows how a good man can be pushed to despicable extremes and is a potent metaphor for so much that’s wrong with the modern word of intoxicating celebrity and quick fixesâ€¦

A powerful fable with an uncompromising message, Pandora’s Box – Sloth is as much a salutary warning to ponder as a story to enjoy.
Â© Dupuis, 2005 by Radovanovic & Alcante. All rights reserved. English translation: Â© 2009 Cinebook Ltd.

August 18, 2016August 17, 2016

The Rocketeer & The Spirit: Pulp Friction

By Mark Waid, Paul Smith, Loston Wallace, J Bone, Bob Wiacek & various (IDW)
ISBN: 978-1-61377-881-4

The American comics industry has generated its fair share of immortal heroes. However, whilst everyone is familiar with household names such as Flash Gordon, Superman, Dick Tracy or Popeye, there are also timeless champions who pretty much remain hallowed names known only to the in-crowd and cognoscenti: characters who have had their shot at global mega-stardom but for some reason never caught on with the masses. Characters like The Spirit and The Rocketeerâ€¦

Will Eisner was a pivotal creative force who helped shaped the entire medium of comics. From 1936 to 1938 he worked as a jobbing cartoonist in the studio-stable known as the â€œEisner-Eiger Shopâ€, creating strips for both domestic and foreign markets.

As Willis B. Rensie he created and drew the opening instalments of a huge variety of characters ranging from funny animal to historical sagas, Westerns, Detectives, aviation action thrillersâ€¦ and superheroesâ€¦ lots of superheroesâ€¦

In 1940 Everett â€œBusyâ€ Arnold, head honcho of Quality Comics, invited Eisner to take on a new challenge. The Register-Tribune newspaper syndicate wanted a 16-page weekly comicbook insert to be given away with the Sunday editions. Eisner created three strips which would initially be handled by him before two were handed off to his talented assistants.

Bob Powell inherited Mr. Mystic and distaff detective Lady Luck first fell into the capable hands of Nick Cardy (nÃ©e Nicholas Viscardi) and later the inimitable Klaus Nordling.

Eisner kept the lead strip for himself, and over the next twelve years masked detective The Spirit grew into the most impressive, innovative, imitated and talked-about strip in the business. In 1952 the venture folded and Eisner moved into commercial, instructional and educational strips, working extensively for the US military in manuals and magazines like P*S, the Preventative Maintenance Monthly, generally leaving comics books behind.

In the wake of â€œBatmaniaâ€ and the 1960s superhero craze, Harvey Comics released two giant-sized reprint editions with some new material from Eisner, which lead to a brace of underground compilations and a slow but inexorable rediscovery and revival of the Spirit’s fame and fortune via black and white newsstand reprint magazines.

Warren Publishing collected old stories, occasionally adding painted colour from such contemporary luminaries as Rich Corben, but from #17 the title reverted to Kitchen Sink, who had produced those first two underground collections.

Eisner found himself re-enamoured with graphic narrative and discerned that there now existed a willing audience eager for new works. From producing new Spirit covers for the magazine (something the original newspaper insert had never needed) he became increasingly inspired. American comics were evolving into an art-form and the restless creator finally saw a place for the kind of stories he had always wanted to tell.

He subsequently began crafting some of the most telling and impressive work the industry had ever seen: first in limited collector portfolios and eventually, in 1978, with the groundbreaking sequential narrative A Contract With God and thereby jumpstarting our modern comics phenomenon of graphic novelsâ€¦

Although his output was far smaller and life far shorter, Dave Stevens had an equally revolutionary effect on the industry: his lush and lavish illustration style influencing a generation of artists as his signature retro-futurist character The Rocketeer became the first breakout star of the Independent Comics movement which stemmed from the creation of the Comicbook Direct Sales Market.

Due to Stevens’s legendarily uncompromising artistic vision – and consequent slow page rate – very few of The Rocketeer’s period exploits appeared before the artist’s death from Hairy Cell Leukaemia in 2008. Since then, however, diverse other hands have added to the canon, as with the miniseries collected in this slim but stunning hardcover edition.

Just in case these vintage adventurers are new to you, The Spirit used to be Denny Colt: Central City’s greatest detective and criminologist. After apparently dying in battle with a vile master-villain, Colt opted to remain officially dearly departed and battle evil in a semi-official capacity as a masked enigma, aided by girlfriend Ellen Dolan and her father the crime-ridden metropolis’ Police Commissioner.

Cliff Secord is an itinerant West Coast pilot who – circa 1938 – found a fantastic jetpack outfit and ever thereafter stumbled into a succession of criminal plots and capers. With the eventual permission of the flight engine’s inventor – one of the greatest heroes of that or any other era – Cliff still finds himself regularly battling bad guys as The Rocketeer. When that’s not occupying his time, he’s busy looking for work or being given the run-around by his star-struck, fame-obsessed, trouble-magnet girl Bettyâ€¦

Team-ups are part-and-parcel of comics extravaganzas and both heroes have had their share of cataclysmic and catastrophic clashes with the valiant giants of the period and the industry.

This yarn however – collecting a 4-issue miniseries by Mark Waid which ran from July to December 2013 – concentrates as much on humour as bombastic action and begins on the East Coast in February 1941 where business executives and government meet to decide the future of the Next Big Thingâ€¦

Alderman Cunningham is stridently opposed to letting business cartels control the new medium and argues that, just like with radio, public airwaves must not be owned by any individual or corporation seeking to monopolise recently invented Televisionâ€¦

Mere hours later an early morning fashion shoot on a California beach is ruined when beautiful Betty finds the idealistic politician’s mangled corpseâ€¦

When the stiff is identified as Cunningham, Commissioner Dolan and Spirit are baffled. How could the victim have travelled more than 3000 miles in one night? Determined to investigate, they book passage on a trans-continental plane, having reluctantly crumbled before the forceful Ellen who demands to join them and see Hollywoodâ€¦

In Los Angeles, Cliff Secord is again being ignored by the traumatised Betty. He mopes dejectedly until his grizzled old mechanic Peevy points out that whoever killed the Alderman might also want to silence the girl who found the bodyâ€¦

Nearby, a very wealthy entrepreneur places a coast-to-coast call to The Spirit’s greatest enemy to discuss his incredible new invention, the pursuance of their plans and how to stop a certain masked interloper from interferingâ€¦

Said hero – still wearing his mask – is stiffly staggering off a plane at Chaplin Field with his equally exhausted cross-country companions. In a weary, unguarded moment he mentions Betty. Learning of the â€œslipâ€, an already paranoid Cliff panics and, assuming the masked killer has come for his girl, dons his rocket-man suit to attackâ€¦

After a spectacular battle, Ellen finally manages to convince the two testosterone-soaked mutton heads they are on the same side, and a tentative alliance is formedâ€¦ at least until Spirit interviews Betty and the flighty starlet finds she’s in love or thereabouts with the hunky masked copâ€¦

Illustrator Paul Smith gives way to Loston Wallace & Bob Wiacek as the second chapter opens with the fractious, clueless allies heading for the LA Morgue to examine Cunningham’s body, even as television wizard Benedict Trask and The Octopus discuss how best to get Betty out of the picture and deal with the interlopers meddling in their affairs. Their solution is unique indeed and everything would have worked out swell if not for inveterate tinkerer Peevy who has built his own prototype TV receiver and intercepted something he shouldn’t haveâ€¦

The villains respond in typical manner but their big mistake is believing the planes sent to strafe Peevy’s hangar are enough to stop Rocketeer and The Spiritâ€¦

With J Bone stepping in to limn the final two chapters the high-octane tale ramps up into top gear as Cliff travels back to Central City with Spirit and the Dolans to find Betty, expose the sinister scheme of Trask and the Octopus, uncover the crooks’ treacherous connections to a certain Fascist foreign power, prevent America’s airwaves from being subverted and even save President Roosevelt from being assassinated by television in a rocket-paced, breathtaking rollercoaster ride that delivers non-stop thrills and chillsâ€¦

Accompanied with an Introduction from Denis Kitchen, filling in all the necessary back-story on the iconic characters, and visually embellished by sketches and a large cover gallery by Darwyn Cooke, Smith, Jordie Bellaire, Bone and Chris Samnee, Pulp Friction is a no-nonsense fun-filled action frolic to delight lovers of the good old days of Thud and Blunderâ€¦
Â© 2014 The Rocketeer Trust and Will Eisner Studios, Inc. The Rocketeer is a registered trademark of, and all related characters, their distinctive likenesses and indicia are trademarks of The Rocketeer Trust. All Rights Reserved. The Spirit Â© 2014 Will Eisner Studios, Inc. The Spirit and Will Eisnerâ„¢ Will Eisner Studios, Inc. Â® in the US Patent and Trademark Office. All Rights Reserved.

August 17, 2016August 16, 2016

Star Trek Gold Key Archives volume 2

By Dick Wood, Len Wein, Alfredo Giolitti & various (IDW)
ISBN: 978-1-63140-108-4

Star Trek debuted on American televisions on September 8^th 1966, running until June 3^rd 1969: three seasons comprising 79 episodes. A moderate success, the series only really became popular after going into syndication, running constantly in American local TV regions throughout the 1970s. It was also sold all over the world, popping up seemingly everywhere and developing quite a devoted fanbase.

There was some merchandising, and an inevitable comicbook – from Gold Key – which ran for almost a decade beyond the show’s cancellation. However, at the start neither authenticity nor immediacy were paramount. Only six issues were released during the show’s entire 3-season run: published between July 1967 and December 1968, those quirkily enticing yarns are all gathered in the first Star Trek: Gold Key archive collection.

The reason for the inaccuracies between screen and page was simple and probably a clear indicator of the attitude both studio and publisher held about science fiction material. Scripter Dick Wood (a veteran comics writer with credits ranging from on hundreds of series from Batman to Crime Does Not Pay to Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom) had never seen any episodes when commissioned to write the comic, with he and Italian artists Nevio Zaccara – and later Alberto Giolitti – receiving only the briefest of outlines and scant reference materials from the show’s producers. The comics craftsmen were working almost utterly in a vacuumâ€¦

Nevertheless, by the time of these interstellar exploits – reprinting Star Trek #7-12 from March 1970 to November 1971 – the well-intentioned contradictions to now-firmly established Trek lore were slowly fading as better reference and familiarity with the actual show steered the printed Enterprise incidents towards canonical parity with the TV phenomenon.

Following a revelatory Introduction ‘The Adventure Continuesâ€¦’ from licensed-character specialists/authors Scott and David Tipton, another stunning photo-collage cover – a rarity at the time outside Gold Key titles – leads into an eerie cosmic quest as Kirk and his crew discovers ‘The Voodoo Planet’ (Wood & Giolitti, #7).

In an unexplored region of space, Enterprise discovers an uninhabited doppelganger of Earth, complete with monuments and landmarks. When a hidden mastermind then causes the Eiffel Tower to crumble, word comes that the original back home has also come tumbling downâ€¦

As the seemingly magical destruction continues, Enterprise tracks a transmission and travels to a planet almost obscured by debris and space junk and finds there a primitive race practising voodooâ€¦

Shock follows shock as a landing party finds escaped Earth war-criminal Count Dressler has subjugated the natives and adapted their abilities to launch devastating attacks on the world that exiled himâ€¦

The villain’s arrogance soon proves his undoing as Dressler underestimates the ingenuity of Mr. Spock and sheer bloody-mindedness of James T. Kirkâ€¦

‘The Youth Trap’ was released with a September 1970 cover-date and sees assorted members of the crew transformed into children by a manic alien explorer who has turned a fantastic survival technology into an irresistible weapon.

Whilst Kooba‘s appalled comrades only want to get home, the madman believes his chronal ray will win him a universe. Once again the combination of Spock’s brains and Kirk’s brawn win the dayâ€¦

From the February 1971 ninth issue, Wood was replaced by dedicated Trek viewer Len Wein (Swamp Thing, Batman, Spider-Man, Hulk) who joined the astounding Alberto Giolitti to explore ‘The Legacy of Lazarus’ wherein the ever outward-bound Enterprise fetched up to a remote planet and found it populated with all the great figures of humanity’s past.

When Spock vanishes his trail leads to a hidden cavern where Earth’s greatest historian Alexander Lazarus has combined robotics and recovered alien technology to gather in the actual brainwaves of history’s giants to create the most astounding resource for knowledge ever conceived.

Sadly, the great feat has only whetted the savant’s appetite and Lazarus wants to perform the same feat with the great and good of Vulcan’s past. To get started, he needs the brain of a native and Spock is the nearest and therefore only logical candidateâ€¦

Luckily for the beleaguered Science Officer, Kirk and his comrades can call on the wisdom and courage of Earth’s greatest heroes to aid in their rescue attemptâ€¦

With Star Trek #10 (May 1971) stills from Paramount were no longer forthcoming and George Wilson began his series of captivating painted covers. Meanwhile, on the pages inside, mystery and imagination hold sway as the starship is plucked out of the void by a cosmic genie whilst Kirk, Spock, Dr. Leonard McCoy and Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott are dumped at the feet of a storybook tyrant who demands they steal for him the awesome ‘Sceptre of the Sun’â€¦

All too soon however the doughty space-farers unravel the lies underpinning the seeming omnipotence of Chang the Sorcerer to find his true origins stem from a long-lost expedition from Earth in ages pastâ€¦

From August 1971, ‘The Brain Shockers’ details how neophyte Yeoman Pandora Trask is tricked by a marauding alien into opening a hatch she wasn’t meant to; unleashing a wave of malignant emotions hidden aboard the Enterprise.

The deadly feelings were originally extracted and bottled at the time Vulcans first sought to abandon passion for logic and were being transported to a secret destination, but now their rampage through the ship and the assailant’s world will wreak havoc unless Spock can outthink both them and immortal, seemingly suicidal Malokâ€¦

Closing this bombastic treasure-trove is ‘The Flight of the Buccaneer’ (#12, November 1971) with Kirk, McCoy, Scott and Spock ordered undercover to infiltrate a nest of interstellar pirates and recover Star Fleet’s stolen store of Dilithium crystals in a fast-paced, all-guns-blazing romp homaging Treasure Islandâ€¦

Packed with photo-covers, promotional photos and a complete Cover Gallery this is another fabulously enticing, expansive and epic compendium of thrills: truly engaging stories to delight young and old alike and well worthy of your rapt attentions.
Â® and Â© 2014 CBS Studios, Inc. Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

August 16, 2016August 15, 2016

Pandora’s Box volume 1: Pride

By Pagot & Alcante, coloured by Christophe Araldi and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-81-6

European comics have never been afraid of progressive ventures or ruffling feathers and have a wonderful way of confronting headline-grabbing issues in a manner certain to keep a broad assortment of readers intrigued and engaged.

Pandora’s Box is the ambitious brainchild of Belgian author Didier Swysen – under his nom de plume Alcante (Jason Brice, Rani, La Conjuration de Cluny) – and boldly blends Doomwatch-style contemporary scientific, imminent society-changing concerns and carefully calculated technological extrapolation. These are then framed against a metaphorical backdrop of classical mythology and delivered as foreboding warnings to the political and plutocratic powers-that-beâ€¦

Couched in evocatively near-to-now science fiction terms, the series comprises eight self-contained tales, all informed by burgeoning ethical issues we’re daily dealing with and each revealing the ultimate cost of succumbing to one of the â€œSeven Deadly Sinsâ€ that have afflicted humanity since that fabled box was first breachedâ€¦

Each tale features a different illustrator. Initial tome Pandora Box – L’orgueil was deftly and subversively rendered in the superbly understated line-work of Didier Pagot (La Dame qui est une RiviÃ¨re, Les Traine-TÃ©nÃ¨bres, TransgÃ©nÃ¨se) and coloured by Christophe Araldi, recounting how a man with a mission compromises his ethics and endangers his soul for the sake of a putative legacyâ€¦

In a secret location a heavily-pregnant woman is rushed into the emergency room and delivers a very special baby. After checking the newborn boy, Dr. Mathias Turpin dismisses the attending staff so that they never learn what becomes of the exhausted motherâ€¦

It’s election year in America and incumbent President Narcissus Shimmer is in the fight of his life for a second term. His reforming programs, the American People and his immortal legacy depend on another four years to finish his grand workâ€¦

Less than a week before the crucial vote, polls have finally put Shimmer ahead of his ruthless opponent Costner and the challenger has resorted to desperate tactics: hiring private detective Ron Grubb to dig up dirt which will end the President’s campaignâ€¦

Although less than keen, the money offered is irresistible and Grubb quickly uses his formidable intellect, infallible instincts and vast network of resources to uncover a potential scandal. For some reasons Shimmer has been given billions in campaign contributions from the biotechnology industries. A potential bribeâ€¦?

Moreover, even in these crucial final days, POTUS keeps slipping his Secret Service detail and fanatical, brilliant campaign manager Claire Dale to visit Geo-Center: a small, expensively discreet gynaecology and maternity hospital.

The first thought is that Shimmer has fathered a child on a mistress: a tempting possibility for a straight-laced straight-shooter famously estranged from his drug-addict son and standoffish wifeâ€¦

Further digging reveals Geo-Center is run by Mathias Turpin: a maternity specialist whose real life’s work is cloning. Of course, human cloning is illegal butâ€¦

With an horrific notion forming, certainty comes after Grubb secures a clandestine blood sample from Shimmer and has it tested.

The President has been sterile for decades and is dying. Only a bone marrow donation can save him. Has his drive to complete his life’s work pushed the dedicated humanitarian into compromising all his principles and breaking the law? If so, how much further will he go to achieve victory and keep his secrets?

Rather than reporting his latest suspicions to the vile Costner, Grubb opts to get his own hands dirty and infiltrate Geo-Center, but events there are already spiralling out of control and a bloody confrontation leads to a horrific conflagration and one final test of all the key players’ moral fibreâ€¦

Dark, bleak, painfully astute and fearfully prophetic, this examination of the depths men will stoop to in pursuit of their â€œdestiniesâ€ also shows how heroes come in many guises and, that for almost everyone, there is an ethical Rubicon they cannot crossâ€¦
Â© Dupuis, 2005 by Pagot & Alcante. All rights reserved. English translation: Â© 2008 Cinebook Ltd.

August 15, 2016August 13, 2016

Tarzan Archives: The Joe Kubert Years volume 2

By Joe Kubert with Hal Foster, Frank Thorne & various (Dark Horse Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-416-6

The early 1970s were the last real glory days of National (now DC) Comics. As they slowly lost market-share to Marvel they responded by producing controversial and landmark superhero material, but their greatest strength lay, as it always has, in the variety and quality of its genre divisions. Mystery and Supernatural thrillers, Science Fiction, Romance, War and Kids’ titles remained powerful attractions and the company’s eye for a strong licensed brand was as keen as ever.

A global multi-media phenomenon, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan had long been a comicbook mainstay of Dell/Gold Key/Whitman, and when DC acquired the title they rightly trumpeted it out, putting one of their top Artist/Editors, Joe Kubert, in charge of the immortal Ape-man’s monthly exploits.

After decades as Whitman staples, total licensing of ERB properties was transferred to DC – not just Tarzan and his extended family, but also the author’s pioneering science fantasy characters – with DC wisely continuing the original numbering.

Tarzan #207 was the first: an April 1972 cover-date, and the series stormed on until #258 in February 1977. Thereafter Marvel, Malibu, Dark Horse and Dynamite extended the Jungle Lord’s comicbook canon in sporadic sorties to recapture the sales and popularity of the 1950sâ€¦

The latter days of the Gold Key run had suffered ever since Russ Manning left the title to draw the syndicated newspaper strip, and even the likes of Doug Wildey were unable to revive the comic’s success in the face of constantly rising costs and a general downturn in sales across the market. DC’s continuation of the franchise premiered in a blaze of publicity at the height of a nostalgia boom and was generally well-received by fans.

DC pushed the title in many places and formats (such as bookstore digest collections and the gloriously oversized Tabloid Editions) and adapted other properties such as John Carter of Mars, Pellucidar and Carson of Venus in their own features and titles

This second superb hardcover archive collection (also available in digital formats) re-presents material from Tarzan #215-224 (December 1972 to October 1973) and opens with fond reminiscences and grateful thanks to fellow artist Frank Thorne in Kubert’s Introduction.

The pictorial wonderment kicks off with a classic visual treat as ‘The Mine!’ incorporates material originally seen in classic 1930s Sunday newspaper strips (by Hal Foster & George Carlin) embedded in an original tale by Kubert.

Joe’s intent was to adapt all 24 Tarzan novels – writing, illustrating and even lettering the stories, with the brilliant Tatjana Wood handling the colours – interspersing them with new and original tales. However the workload, coupled with his other editorial duties, was crippling.

As with Tarzan #211, here he was again compelled to combine original with vintage to detail how the Ape-Man is captured by slavers and pressed into toil deep in the bowels of the earth for a sadistic mine owner.

Naturally, Tarzan soon chafes at enforced servitude and quickly leads a savage workers’ revolt to overturn and end the corporate bondage…

Issue #216 took another route to beating deadlines with old pal Frank Thorne pencilling Kubert’s script for ‘The Renegades’, leaving hard-pressed Joe to ink and complete the story of a murderous raid which wipes out a Red Cross mission.

Investigating the atrocity, Tarzan discovers the â€œmaddened savagesâ€ responsible are actually white men masquerading as natives; stealing supplies for a proposed expedition to plunder a lost treasure vault. When he catches the culprits, Tarzan’s vengeance is terrible indeedâ€¦

‘The Black Queen!’ is an all-Kubert affair wherein the Jungle Lord almost saves a man from crocodiles. Acceding to the ravaged victim’s last wish, Tarzan then travels to his distant homeland and overturns the brutal regime of tyrannical Queen Kyra who rules her multicultural kingdom with whimsy, ingrained prejudice and casual crueltyâ€¦

The equally selfish choices of American millionaire tycoon Darryl T. Hanson blights his family as his search for ‘The Trophy’ decimates the fauna of Tarzan’s home and leads to a clash of wills and ideologies which can only end in tragedyâ€¦

With Tarzan #219, Kubert began an epic 5-issue adaptation of ERB’s sequel novel The Return of Tarzan. It opens in Paris as the unacknowledged son of vanished Lord Greystoke tries to adapt to his new life as a civilised man of leisure.

One night his natural gallantry draws him to the side of a woman screaming for help and he is attacked by a gang of thugs. After easily thrashing the brigands he is astounded to find her accusing him of assault and simply bounds effortlessly away from the gendarmes called to the disturbance.

This entire trap has been engineered by a new enemy; Russian spy and Ã©migrÃ© Nikolas Rokoff and his duplicitous toady Paulvitchâ€¦

The rightful heir to the Greystoke lands and titles silently stood aside and let his apparently unaware cousin William Cecil Clayton claim both them and the American Jane Porter, after Tarzan rescued her from attacking apes in the jungle. Missing her terribly, Tarzan then chose to make his own way in the human world beside new friend and French Naval Officer Paul D’Arnot.

(You could catch up by reading our review of Tarzan Archives: The Joe Kubert Years Volume One, but I’m sure you’d far rather see the book itself or even the original novelâ€¦).

In the course of his urbane progression, Tarzan had exposed the Russian cheating at cards to blackmail French diplomat Count De Coude and had earned himself a relentless, implacable foe forever. When Rokoff subsequently tried to murder Tarzan, the vile miscreant agonisingly learned how powerful his jungle-bred enemy wasâ€¦

With physical force clearly of no use, Rokoff’s latest plan is to put the Ape-Man through a ‘Trial by Treachery’; manufacturing â€œevidenceâ€ that Tarzan is having an affair with the Comte’s wife. Once more, however, the civilised monster underestimates his target’s forthright manner of dealing with problems and is savagely beaten until he admits to the plot and clears the innocent woman’s nameâ€¦

With news of Jane’s impending marriage to William Clayton, Tarzan seeks to ease his tortured mind with action and the next chapter sees him travel to Algeria where, sponsored by the grateful, ashamed Count, he begins working for the Secret Service in Sidi Bel Abbes, ferreting out a traitor in the turbulently volatile French colonyâ€¦

His hunt soon leads him to a likely traitor and brutal battle with Arab agent provocateurs, but things start to turn his way after he liberates a dancing slave who is the daughter of a local sheik.

When word of Jane comes from D’Arnot, Tarzan throws himself even more deeply into his tasks and falls into another ambush organised by Rokoff. This time his ‘Fury in the Desert’ seems insufficient to his needs until his newfound friend the Sheik rides to his rescueâ€¦

The intrigue continues to unfold in ‘Return of the Primitive’ as Tarzan finally uncovers a link between Rokoff and the espionage at Sidi Bel Abbes. Job done he is then posted to Capetown and aboard ship meets voyager Hazel Strong, a close friend of Jane’s who reveals the heiress had never forgotten her tryst with the Ape-Man.

Unable to watch Jane enter into a loveless marriage, Hazel took off on an ocean cruiseâ€¦

The story rocks Tarzan’s mind, but not so completely that he fails to notice Rokoff is also aboard and murderously dogging his footsteps. This time however the Russian is properly prepared and that night the Ape-Man vanishes from the shipâ€¦

Rokoff’s act of assassination is a purely pyrrhic victory. Soon after reaching Capetown the villain insinuated himself into the Clayton wedding party but when their yacht’s boilers explode next morning, he, Hazel, William Clayton, Jane and her father are left adrift in a lifeboatâ€¦

Tarzan meanwhile, has survived being tumbled overboard and spent days swimming hundreds of miles. He now washes up on the same beach his parents were left upon decades ago. Staggering inland, he finds himself in the cabin his father built before being stolen and adopted by Kala the She-Ape.

John Clayton is forgotten, for fate has brought Tarzan homeâ€¦

A man changed by his time amongst other men, the Jungle Lord instinctively saves a native warrior from certain death and is astonished to find himself declared chieftain of the noble Waziri tribe.

â€¦And off the coast, a lifeboat filled with dying travellers spots land and wearily sculls towards a welcoming beach in the heart of primeval forestsâ€¦

Revelling in his newfound status, popularity and freedom, Tarzan enquires about the fabulous jewelled ornaments of his new friends and learns of an incredible lost metropolis. Soon he is curiously journeying to ‘The City of Gold’ where he encounters debased, degenerate beast-men led by a gloriously beautiful Queen.

La is high priestess of forgotten Atlantean outpost Opar, but can barely control her subjects enough to allow the perfect specimen of manhood to escape to safety. Both she and Tarzan know they are destined to meet againâ€¦

Refusing to be cheated of their sacrifice, the bloodthirsty Oparian males search far into the jungle and soon encounter the Clayton yacht survivors. When the primitives attack the human strangers and carry off Jane, Rokoff shows his true colours, leaving William to die. This callous act also inadvertently clears the path for Tarzan to finally claim his inheritance and reunite with Janeâ€¦

All the Jungle Lord has to do is break back into Opar, save his one true love from ‘The Pit of Doom!’ and escape the wrath of jealous Queen Laâ€¦

That mission accomplished, he and Jane return to the beach in time to witness William’s dying confession and accept the succession to the estates and title of Lord Greystokeâ€¦

This captivating compilation concludes with an original adventure seeing Tarzan rescue a beautiful maiden from attacking apes and discovering she is a messenger from La, who is in peril of her lifeâ€¦

In Opar another insurrection by the Beast Men has left the Queen imperilled by her subjects and threatened by a gigantic mutant whom she tearfully reveals is her sibling in ‘Death is My Brother!’ With no choice Tarzan regretfully battles the dim brute and proves to the insurgents that his wrath is greater than their maliceâ€¦

Supplemented by Creator Biographies of Burroughs and Kubert, this tome is another masterpiece of comics creation and total adventure triumph which no lover of the medium or fantasy fan can afford to be without.
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan Â® The Joe Kubert Years Volume Two Â© 1972, 1973, 2006 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. All rights reserved. Tarzan Â® is owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., and used by permission.

August 13, 2016August 12, 2016

Suicide Squad volume 2: The Nightshade Odyssey

By John Ostrander, Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, Paul Kupperberg, Robert Greenberger, Luke McDonnell, Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-5833-7

In 1986, mega-monster continuity reboot Crisis on Infinite Earths led to DC Comics overwriting fifty years of continuity and revamping their major properties. The massive spring-cleaning exercise led to a swarm of boldly innovative titles and a fresh look at how comicbooks could be done.

One of the most unconventional – despite crossing genres and having roots leading back to the very dawn of the Silver Age – was Suicide Squad by John Ostrander and artist Luke McDonnell.

Previously during a psychological attack on the very concept of heroism (as seen in the miniseries Legends and its many tie-ins and crossovers) President Ronald Reagan outlawed costumed crimebusters and sanctioned an ultra-covert governmental black-bag operation to press super-powered criminals into (secret) serviceâ€¦

John Ostrander was new to DC; lured with Editor Mike Gold from Chicago’s First Comics where their work on Starslayer, Munden’s Bar and especially Grimjack had made those independent minnows some of the most popular series of the decade. Spinning out of Legends, Ostrander hit the ground running with a superbly compelling reinterpretation of the long-neglected Suicide Squad: a boldly controversial revaluation of meta-humanity and the role of government in a world far more dangerous than the placid public believedâ€¦

As originally conceived by Robert Kanigher, the Suicide Squad first saw action in The War that Time Forgot (Star Spangled War Stories #90, April-May 1960). Paratroops and tanks of â€œQuestion Mark Patrolâ€ dropped onto Mystery Island from whence no American soldiers ever returned. The crack warriors discovered why when the operation was overrun by dinosaurs and worseâ€¦

Re-imagined for The Brave and the Bold #25 (September 1959) as a quartet of combat specialists, Colonel Rick Flag, medic Karin Grace plus boffins Hugh Evans and Jess Price were officially convened as Suicide Squad/Task Force X by the US government to investigate uncanny mysteries and tackle unnatural threats.

The gung ho gang (another Kanigher, Andru & Esposito invention) appeared in six issues but never really caught the public’s attention – perhaps because they weren’t costumed heroes – and quickly faded from memory.

Then, in April 1967 Our Fighting Forces #106 began the exploits of homicide detective Ben Hunter; recruited by the army during WWII to run roughshod over a penal battalion of prisoners who had grievously broken regulations.

Facing imprisonment or execution, the individually lethal military malcontents were given a chance to earn a pardon by undertaking missions deemed too tough or hopeless for proper soldiers. Hunter’s Hellcats – inarguably â€œinspiredâ€ by the movie The Dirty Dozen – ran until December 1969, in increasingly nasty and occasionally fatal sorties, before being replaced without fanfare or preamble by The Losers and similarly lost to posterity.

Ostrander tied together all these disparate strands and linked obscure comics events to provide a shocking secret history of America: a time when superheroes were forced into retirement after World War II with the military and Task Force X used to (unobtrusively) take out the monsters, spies, aliens and super-criminals who didn’t conveniently pack up with them.

Now substituting super-villains for simple criminals, history was madeâ€¦

This second collection was designed to tie-in to both the TV and movie incarnations of the Suicide Squad. Reprinting Suicide Squad #9-16, plus a crossover from Justice League International #13, material from Secret Origins #28 and team-up one-shot Doom Patrol/Suicide Squad #1(spanning January-August 1988) – it resumes the story of strident political insider Amanda Waller who convinced President Reagan to sponsor her scheme to make bad guys do good deeds.

He agreed, but only as long as he had complete deniabilityâ€¦

Waller didn’t want society to depend on capricious super do-gooders and recruited Flag’s damaged, driven son to run a new penal battalion working â€œoff the booksâ€, using state-sanctioned metahuman force for the greater good. Knowing criminals can’t be trusted, her devious set-up involves not just bribery – reduced sentences, financial favours and pardons – but coercion.

Field missions are led by traumatised, obsessively patriotic Flag Jr., assisted by amnesiac martial artist Bronze Tiger who ensures everybody stays honest and on-mission. Convict-operatives are picked as necessity demands, but some operatives are in regular use, such as Deadshot, Captain Boomerang and schizophrenic sorceress Enchantress. They are, however, wired with remote-detonation explosive devices just in caseâ€¦

Backed by a support team which includes Flag’s former lover Karin Grace and Briscoe, a bizarre mystery pilot who has a rather unusual relationship with his seemingly sentient helicopter gunship, the ever-fluctuating team seem ready for anythingâ€¦

The stories here come from a period when publishers were first developing the marketing strategies of the â€œBraided Mega-Crossover Event.â€ This hard-on-the-pockets innovation dictated really big stories involving every publication in a company’s output, for a limited time period – so a compilation like this perforce includes adventures that seem confusing because they are essentially â€œmiddlesâ€ with no beginnings or endings.

In this instance the unfolding epic is Millennium which saw writer Steve Englehart expand on an iconic tale from Justice League of America #140-141 as well as his run on the Green Lantern Corpsâ€¦

Billions of years ago the robotic peacekeepers called Manhunters rebelled against their creators. The immortal Guardians of the Universe desired a rational, emotionless cosmos – a view challenged by their own women. The Zamarons eventually abandoned the Guardians at the inception of the grand scheme, but after eons apart the two factions finally reconciled and left our reality together.

Here and now they have returned with a plan to midwife a new race of immortals on Earth, but the mechanoid Manhunters – who had in the meantime infiltrated all aspects of every society throughout the cosmos – resolved to thwart the plan, whether by seduction, connivance or just plain brute force.

The heroes of Earth gathered to protect the project and confront the Manhunters in their own private livesâ€¦ and their own comicsâ€¦

Thus Suicide Squad #9 (by Ostrander, Luke McDonnell & Bob Lewis) sees a team assembled to destroy a Manhunter Temple deep in the Louisiana swamps surrounding the team’s secret Belle Reve base. However, as they battle their way in with a monolithic bomb – despite interference from Captain Atom, Firestorm and too-good-to-be-true reformed Manhunter Mark Shaw – Flag discovers the person he most trusted is a Manhunter moleâ€¦

An unlikely hero then pays ‘The Final Price’ to complete the mission before, unconventionally, the squad pick up a new recruit in the bellicose form of mystery warrior Duchess just as they flee the cataclysmic results of their latest covert triumphâ€¦

As counsellor/chaplain Reverend Cramer sets up shop in Belle Reve, a grievous security breach occupies Waller’s attention. Somehow Batman has penetrated the top-secret project and indignantly announces that he will expose the whole sordid show.

When neither Flag nor the squad are able to stop the Dark Knight, Amanda finds a unique way to make the intransigent hero back down in ‘Up Against the Wall’â€¦

More politically astute action unfolds in ‘Red Pawn’ (plotted by Ostrander, scripted by Paul Kupperberg with art by Erik Larsen & Lewis from Doom Patrol/Suicide Squad #1) as reactionary right-wing hero Hawk is captured whilst running guns to anti-communist Contras in Nicaragua.

His plight quickly becomes the focus of a humiliating media circus, and, still smarting from his last press roasting for such illicit activities, Reagan orders Waller to rescue or kill the wayward freedom fighter.

Typically, this move angers the NSA advisors of the Leader of the Free World, who take matters into their own hands to fatally embarrass â€œthe Wallâ€ by inveigling recent Soviet defector Valentina Vostok to deploy her comrades in the Doom Patrol to save the tragic, well-meaning patriotic Hawk from the evil Sandanistasâ€¦

Already shaping up as a SNAFU of biblical proportions, neither American faction is aware that rival cabals in reformist Russian Premier Mikhail Gorbachev‘s vast espionage apparatus are also implementing their own undercutting agendasâ€¦

Soon the entire country is at war as the Squad battle the undercover Doom Patrol (Celsius, Robotman, Negative Woman and Tempest) until a brigade of armoured Rocket Reds invades the nation. With uncontrolled destruction at maximum, the pointless clash escalates even further as a fourth force comprising Soviet super-soldier Stalnoivolk and KGB master schemer Major Zastrow work their own malignant way towards an acceptable solution to restore the status quo â€¦

Barely surviving the political fallout, Waller’s Wonders are next deployed to destroy a drug-cartel in Suicide Squad #11 as ex-Justice Leaguer Vixen seeks vengeance after her friends are gunned down during a smuggling operation. ‘Blood and Snow Part One’ sees her volunteer for the penal team which is starting to feel the pressure of its own success.

Flag is on the edge of a breakdown and nobody has noticed that incorrigible felon Boomerang is impersonating another super-villain to rob banks in his spare timeâ€¦

With no time to assess and her best assets still in Nicaragua, Waller assembles a team heavy with government-affiliated heroes such as Black Orchid, Nightshade and Speedy to augment remaining regular players Captain Boomerang, Enchantress and Briscoe. With great misgivings she tasks them with infiltrating the inner circle of Medellin Cartel boss Xavier Cujo to destroy his jungle fortress and vast stores of cocaine.

None of them are particularly bothered by the fact that this is an official assassination missionâ€¦

Naturally, the plan is perfect up until the moment it begins and soon the undercover stalwarts are battling for their lives in the blistering conclusion ‘Blood and Snow Part Two’. In the ghastly aftermath, however, Vixen no longer counts herself as a hero of any descriptionâ€¦

A crucial crossover began in Justice League International #13. ‘Collision Course’ (inked by Al Gordon, drawn by Keith Giffen and co-written with partner in comedic crime J. M. DeMatteis) revealed how US agent and Suicide Squad point-man Nemesis was being tortured in a Soviet jail: a fact proudly leaked by the State’s media…

He had languished there ever since Waller abandoned him at the end of a disastrous attempt to rescue Russian dissenter Zoya Trigorin, but when Batman learns his old ally is a political prisoner he determines to break him out with or without the help of his JLI associatesâ€¦

At Belle Reve, Flag – unable to convince The Wall (who is being stonewalled by Reagan) that something must be done – has begun his own illegal attempt to free the American hostage. However, once again unseen Soviet machinations are in play and an ambitious plotter has gulled Russian hero Starfire to inject himself into the growing crisis to bait a devious trapâ€¦

Flag’s team then stumbles into and brutally clashes with Batman’s Leaguers who are eventually forced into the uncomfortable position of having to – at least ostensibly – fight to keep Nemesis in Russian custody as ‘Battle Lines’ (Suicide Squad #13 by Ostrander, McDonnell & Lewis) are drawn. With violence peaking everybody gets a grim lesson in superpower Realpolitik before a solution is foundâ€¦

Dimension-hopping super-agent Nightshade has been working for the Suicide Squad in return for the promise of assistance in a personal task. Secret Origins #28 revealed her hidden history in ‘A Princess’ Story’ (Robert Greenberger, Rob Liefeld & Lewis), detailing how little Eve Eden escaped from her own arcane realm after it was conquered by a marauding mystic entity dubbed the Incubus, leaving her brother behindâ€¦

All her life she has trained; as a spy, a superhero and a warrior, readying herself for the moment when she would return to save her sibling and liberate her homelandâ€¦

These revelations lead into the eponymous story arc ‘Nightshade Odyssey’ which opens with the moment Waller always dreaded. A criminally corrupt senator has discovered the facts of the Suicide Squad and threatens to destroy Reagan’s legacy unless the team is used to end investigations into his malfeasance and get him re-elected.

A man of resolute convictions, the President immediately caves and orders Waller to get it doneâ€¦

With The Wall seemingly broken and contemplating resignation, the beleaguered director tells Nightshade to complete her personal mission immediately. With barely a pause for thought Nightshade, Boomerang, Bronze Tiger, Deadshot, Duchess, Enchantress and Vixen are ‘Slipping into Darkness’ to materialise in a place of malign horror concealing a trap decades in the makingâ€¦

From the mouth of her eternally corrupted brother, Eve learns the truth of the situation, the mystic history of the universes and the Incubus’ diabolical connection to the Succubus force which possesses Enchantress. Then she hears their repellent plans for herâ€¦

However the satanic corruptor has never met a fighter like the enigmatic Duchess, who provides a ferocious and world-shaking distraction, allowing Eve to free her comrades and effect an uncontrolled escape from the hellish dimension leaving the ‘Devil to Pay’â€¦

Sadly, the pell-mell exit dumps the fleeing fugitives into an otherworldly ‘Deathzone’ (Suicide Squad #13, inked by Malcolm Jones III) between universes where they are doomed to madness and worse, until rescued by a mysterious alien nomad calling himself Rac Shade.

Holding information of a long-extant alien incursion on Earth, â€œthe Changing Manâ€ makes the jump back to Belle Reve where Amanda Waller has come to a momentous decisionâ€¦

To Be Continued

With covers by Jerry Bingham, Larsen & Lewis, Steve Leialoha & Gordon and Jim Valentino, Keith Wilson & William Messner-Loebs, this is a timeless collection of gritty gripping, hard-edged Fights ‘n’ Tights forays to delight action fans: a still magnificent mission statement for the DC Universe, offering witty cohesive and contemporary stories that appealed not just to superhero lovers but also devotees of spy and crime capers. As such they remain fine fodder for today’s so-sophisticated, informed and thrill-hungry readers.
Â© 1988, 2015 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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